


Destined

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: AU, Destiny, Dragons, HEA- Eventually, M/M, Nobody dies this time I swear, Slow Burn, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2019-11-06 13:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17940737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: Child Aaron picks a different path, but some events are fixed in time.





	1. Chapter 1

Wiping his snot and tears on his shirt sleeve, seven-year-old Aaron curled tighter into a ball under his bed. He could feel where his shirt was sticking to the skin of his back, a sure sign he was bleeding, again, but the fear of the pain when he pulled it off later was nothing compared to the fear that his father would follow him into his bedroom and finish the job he’d started. And some days he wished he would. On the days when teachers berated him for not staying awake in class, or when he got scolded for eating food too fast, or when his head hurt so much, he couldn’t focus on a test. Those days, he wished his father would just kill him and get it over with.

Huddled under the bed, Aaron shivered until the house was quiet, until he could hear his father snoring in the next room, then he knew he was safe. Easing out from under the bed, he felt the marks on his face and wondered what lie would work at school the next day, he hadn’t run into any doorknobs recently.

Peeling his shirt off, he winced as he felt the drying scabs break apart, fresh blood oozing. In a moment of wistfulness, he glanced out his window and up at the sky, wondering what it would be like to leave. One star seemed to twinkle brighter than the others. He didn’t know what made him do it, but after a minute, Aaron heard himself doing something he didn’t often do, he spoke. “I wish I could just go away where he couldn’t hurt me anymore.”

He waited. Then, he sighed. It was stupid to believe on such wishes. Tossing his ruined shirt in the trash, he crawled into bed.

\--

_“Aaron.” A voice whispered from somewhere out of sight._

_Aaron blinked and looked around, wherever he was, he wasn’t in his room._

_“Aaron.”_

_“Who’s there?”_

_The room lightened and a man stepped out of the shadows. “Come with me, we must discuss your wish.” He offered his hand to help the boy up._

_“My wish?”_

_“You wished to go away from the man who is hurting you. You wished to not be hurt any longer.”_

_He nodded._

_“Your wish can come true, but there are things you need to know. Many have many similar wishes, but many decided in the end to stay where they were.”_

_“Wha-What?”_

_“You can go away, but you will never be able to go back. It is forever. You will have to learn to care for yourself, you will be free.” He led the boy to a chair and sat down so the were eye to eye. “I will be able to drop in on you from time to time, but it’s a lonely life. Your friends and family, you will never get to really see them again.”_

_“Okay.”_

_The man studied him a moment. “You’re too young to understand this right now, but there are things in your future, things that must happen whether you stay with your family or not. I can’t tell you whether you will be better prepared in either version.”_

_“Okay.” He answered again, more forcefully this time. “I want my wish. I want my wish!”_

_The man nodded. “Go back to sleep.”_

\--

Lorraine Hotchner entered her only son’s room the following morning to wake him for school to find only his clothes in his bed as if he’d simply vanished in his sleep. Her scream brought her husband running.


	2. Chapter 2

Aaron woke to sunlight filtering down and a breeze blowing gently. Stretching, he rolled onto his back, the crinkling sound of leaves like soft music. The air was fresh and felt wonderf-

Aaron’s eyes popped open and stared up at…not his chipped bedroom ceiling. There was stone overhead. Mossy, damp-smelling stone like a…a cave.

Rolling carefully, he looked around. He had been laying on a bed of dead leaves. He reached out to touch them only to be startled that his hand wasn’t his hand! It was blue! And it looked like a-! He yelped, rolling backward as he turned and took off at a tear through the woods. He was in woods. He was running on all fours! He smelled water and turned, too freaked out already to start freaking out about the fact he’d _smelled_ the water. Reaching the of a lake, he looked down at his reflection and cried out! He was blue and scaly all over! Jumping away from the sight, he slipped on the damp bank and splashed into the water, spluttering and coughing.

Scrambling against the water, he finally managed to get up the bank and for a moment sat, dripping and scowling, at the lake that had seemingly tried to consume him. He had no idea what had happened. How had he turned into this- this- this blue…thing!

Creeping close to the water again, he looked at himself. He had a snout and stumpy little legs and… And a tail! He gave it a shake and watched it wag. Turning a bit more he discovered a pair of tiny wings on his back.

“I’m a dragon!” He said softly, his tiny voice surprising him. “I’m a dragon that can talk!”

Well, he figured, there were worse things to turn into.

==

Aaron galloped around the trees, stopping occasionally to try and make his tiny wings lift him up. This was so much better than being at home with his dad! Panting, he rolled to the ground just outside the cave he’d woke up in and lifted his feet, all four of them, into the air and really studied them. His scales were dark blue, like the night sky, and in the sun they shimmered. His stumpy legs, perfect for holding him upright, had small toes with smaller claws. “I wonder if I can climb?” He asked no one. Rolling back over, he darted to a tree and tried scrambling up, managing to get about six feet, which was an incredible distance seeing as he wasn’t any bigger than a small house cat, before sliding back to the ground and landing with a thud.

His tummy rumbled, startling him a moment. “I need lunch.” He looked around, wondering how to get back home for something to eat.

“Aaron.”

He jumped, whirling around and seeing the man from his dream the night before. “Who are you! Why are you here?”

“Aaron.” The man gave him a sad smile. “I told you last night, once you’ve changed, you can never go back to your old life. These woods are your home now.”

“But- but I’m just a kid! I have school and I’m hungry and and and-”

“Shh. Yes, you are young as a human, but as a dragon, you are old enough to live on your own. Now, there are some things you must know and Aaron, these are very important things.” He studied the tiny dragon. “Humans, people, they don’t believe in dragons, they would be very frightened if they saw you and they would want to capture you and study you. You are allowed to travel wherever in the world you wish, but you must be sure you are never seen.”

“Oh. Never?”

“Never.”

“That sounds lonely.”

The man nodded. “It can be. But you will learn that there’s a different kind of happiness out here.”

Aaron’s stomach rumbled again. “What do I eat?”

“Leaves, flowers, as you grow you will eat animals as well, but while you are small, you can eat insects.”

Frowning as much as he could, he toed a small yellow flower beside him. “Oh.”

“This can never be undone, my boy, but like I said last night, there are things in your future that will happen whether you are dragon now or if you’d have stayed a human.”

“My future? So, my dad wouldn’t have killed me?”

The man squinted at him a moment before shaking his head. “No. _Your_ death is a fixed point in time, something that’s next to impossible to change. You have a purpose in the future, Aaron, that you must fulfill. And you will fulfill it when the time comes.”

“How will I know?”

“You will be drawn to that point like a moth to a flame, there will be a burning inside you that will ensure you are there and then, when that time comes, you’ll know what to do.”

Aaron looked back at the ground again in thought, when he looked up, the man had vanished. Huffing, he leaned down and used his teeth to gently pull the flower out of the ground and chewed a minute before his face twisted in disgust. He spit the flower out. “Blech! Ew! Icky!”

==

Tucking his wings flush to his back, Aaron crept almost silently up to the butterfly sitting on a rock. He’d been a dragon for two days and the only things he’d managed to eat so far were some leaves off a few bushes and a caterpillar. Wiggling his rump as he focused on what he needed to do next, he blocked out everything and sprang into the air! He landed, front feet around the rock. “Gotcha!” Carefully, he eased his paws open to view his prize. “Huh?! Where’d it go?” He looked around to find the suddenly missing butterfly. Fluttering made him raise his snout as the butterfly daintily landed on the end of his nose, making him go cross-eyed.

“Hey!” He sat upright, shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge the butterfly. “Hey!” He tried again, this time swiping at it, making it finally flutter away to a nearby branch. “More leaves for diner then.”

==

Aaron blinked out of the opening of his cave. It was raining. A clap of thunder boomed overhead and he slunk back, Aaron always hated thunderstorms. A bolt of lightning sliced through the sky and he whimpered. “I miss mommy.”

The wind, however, carried on howling, not caring at all about a sad little dragon in a wet, cold cave.

“I’m cold.” He muttered to himself. “My bed is all wet and icky.” He tried his best to push everything to one side and make a dry space. “I don’t like being a dragon at all.”


	3. Six Years On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delays. My metal health this year has been not doing well. I am hopeful that in the coming weeks, things in my personal life will be changing and I will begin to bounce back. Thank you to those who are bearing with me.

Frightened, Aaron scrambled up into a tall pine tree and watched through the needles as the campers who’d stumbled upon his cave started poking around.

Over the six years since he’d become a dragon, he’d slowly learned to hide, often wondering why he’d ended up blue instead of something much more useful like green.

The campers below were digging around his nest, spreading out all his hard work and trampling on his clean bedding. He felt himself get angry and wanted to scramble down and run them off, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to stay hidden from people. Eventually, the swaying of the treetop began to lull Aaron to sleep and he draped himself over the small top branches, his wings fluttering as they did to keep him balanced. The sun was warm on his back and, even with his eyes closed, he knew his scales were sparkling. Basking was one of his favorite things to do… Aaron drifted off to sleep.

The feeling of freefalling woke him up with a cry! Waving legs and tail, he flailed to find purchase as his eyes watched in panic as the top of the tree grew smaller and smaller. Tumbling in midair, Aaron flailed and flapped with everything he had until his falling suddenly…stopped.

He was hovering halfway up the tree.

“What?” He looked around, trying to figure out what was happening. Craning his neck, he saw that his wings were flapping! They were holding him up! “I’m flying!” He tried to lean forward to move, but stayed firmly in his spot in the air. With a grunt, he stretched his head and neck out even further, pitching himself forward and aimed down, throwing himself off balance entirely and bringing him crashing to the ground. “Ow.” He grunted.

Finding his feet, he shook off the dirt and leaves and twisted around, nosing his wings. “Now how do I make them do that again?” He tried flapping, but no lift happened. “Aw, come on!” He tried again. “I am not climbing a tree every time just to fly.”

Looking around the woods, he got an idea. Scrambling toward his now trashed cave, he clambered on top, peering down over the front. “It’s only a little high.” Backing his way down the rear slope of the cave, Aaron ran as fast as he could for the edge. Right before the end, a front foot slipped in some leaves and instead of soaring forward, he slipped down, tail over head as he crashed in front of the cave’s mouth. “Shoot!”

Carefully stretching to be sure he hadn’t permanently damaged anything, Aaron slunk back around the cave, swearing he could hear birds tittering at him. Paying closer attention this time, he first used his tail to sweep dried leaves off the path and then he went back to his starting point and gave a small rump wiggle to get himself psyched up. Trotting as fast as he could muster, Aaron rushed for the edge, launching cleanly this time off, flapping his wings furiously as he could manage as he began to fly forward across the opening he called his home!

“I- I did it! I’m flying!” He cried out, trotting his feet in joy. “I’m really flying!” His focus left his wings and for a split second, he felt himself falling but, with a yelp, he flapped as hard as he could and recovered. “Yes!”

==

The only problem Aaron had found, so far, with his newfound flying ability was that it made him so very, very hungry. The small things he’d spent all day eating before just weren’t doing it anymore, he wanted something meaty!

Creeping along the edge of the woods in the darkness that night, Aaron watched as a herd of goats grazed in a small pen. They didn’t look all that yummy, but his stomach grumbled again and something in him told him it would be good. Finally thankful for his coloring, he slunk to the fence, squeezing underneath before edging closer, finding a baby goat, one that wasn’t much bigger than himself. He licked him lips as he stared. His back end shimmied, and he pounced, landing on the baby’s back and chomping down hard against its neck as the baby cried out, making the rest of the herd begin to panic as well. Aaron tried biting again, the baby bucked, and a horrid sound came from his left just before hooves and teeth were kicking and snapping at him. Panicking himself, Aaron flapped his wings and landed in a tree just out of reach of the monster that had nearly bitten him.

“What was _that_?” He peered down. “A _donkey_??” He gasped. “I didn’t know a donkey would do that!” Twisting around on the branch, he checked himself over, looking for any injuries from the donkey. “Ass is about right.” He huffed.

Once he was done looking for injuries, he turned back to the baby goat. “Why couldn’t I bite it?” He tried to frown. Thinking, he wriggled his own body, feeling which parts were hard and soft. “Ohhh…” He finally murmured. “There’s bones in his neck. But… But there are feet and mean hooves by his throat…” As the stars twinkled overhead, Aaron pondered how to get the goat without getting kicked or worse.

Just as dawn was breaking, he saw his moment. The donkey was on the far side of the pen and the baby goat was in a corner made by the water and the fence. Slipping down the tree, Aaron climbed the fence and stretched out, chomping down hard on the baby goat’s throat, stopping any sound before it could make it. Once the animal had gone limp, he did his best to flap and lift them both, but the animal was too heavy. Huffing if frustration, Aaron spent until daylight dragging it back to his cave.

“That’s it, I’m an herbivore from now on!”

==

Summers sucked.

Aaron laid flat on his back on top of his cave and stared up at the trees. Summers meant people out hiking and camping and kids running around away from their parents because they were out of school and it sucked skunk dens, something Aaron had learned about when he was nine and had poked around in one and learned he wasn’t welcome. No amount of soaking in the lake had helped and he hadn’t been able to sneak up on anything for over a week.

The reason summers sucked so much, however, was that Aaron always had to remain out of sight. And that was hard when people were constantly wandering up on him.

Flying definitely helped, along with his still small size, he usually could get away, leaving humans thinking they’d seen nothing more than a bird or two vanishing into the trees. It was during one of his most recent trips to the treetops that something different had caught his attention.

Back in first grade, before he’d vanished from home, Aaron had had a best friend, Simon Walters. Aaron hadn’t thought about him in years, not until a much older boy was running beneath him with the same shock of red hair and smattering of freckles. “Simon.” He’d whispered is surprise. “I forgot about you.” For the entire day, he’d followed Simon and his family through the woods, his heart aching at his old friend. “I miss you, Simon.”

By the time the family had left that evening back to town, Aaron had watched them eat over a camp fire, had watched the siblings play, and watched them all pile into the car. Leaving his cave behind for the time being, he’d flown from tree to tree, following the vehicle back to town before turning and finding his old home. Through the windows, he could see his father reading a paper downstairs and, as he moved from window to window, he found his mother climbing the stairs to the second floor. “Mommy.” He’d whispered.

On the second floor, he found her again, walking into his old room that was now redecorated. Inside it was a toddler boy, one that didn’t look frightened or abused. “They replaced me.” He choked up. “They replaced me, and they love him more. They take care of him.” With an angry flap of his wings, he flew as fast as he could back to his cave, swearing to himself he’d never go looking again.

==

Boredom had been the precursor to bit of creativity as Aaron had gotten older. He discovered there were ways a dragon his size and color could sneak in places at night without being seen. Some of those places were libraries and schools. Lower level schools were boring at night, but it turned out that colleges had classes all time of day and night and some of them were really interesting and the best part was he could be around people.

Free of the memory of his parents, Aaron began to travel the country, seeing things and visiting places he read about in books. It was still very lonely, but he discovered he could have a little fun too. He’d visited funparks, especially the ones that had haunted houses and fun houses, he managed to wedge himself carefully under a roller coaster once but swore to never do that again after he’d yacked up the funnel cake he’d stolen beforehand.

He found out he loved museums, especially natural history ones, and he really liked zoos as well, though he had to mind the open enclosures of some of the larger animals. For a week, he’d hung out in the trees, studying the giraffes, feeding them leaves when no one was looking. A month later, at a different zoo, he swooped low over one enclosure and his life nearly flashed before his eyes when a large tiger jumped out and nearly got him.

Elephants and gorillas weren’t any nicer, but the hippos weren’t too bad, they mostly ignored him riding on their backs.

One evening, he was hiding out in a tree in a park as he watched people milling around below him, many holding hands or cuddled together. He’d never noticed things like that before. But now, it seemed like everywhere he looked, people were doing things in pairs or in groups and it reminded him again that he was very much alone. Huffing at his suddenly morose mood, Aaron carried on flying, eventually making his way back to his ‘home’ cave. It was dusty and filled with leaves and a family of rabbits, but he worked to clear it out and crawled inside, the rabbits stayed, which was nice, but they didn’t talk and they weren’t friends or family.


	4. Twelve Years On

“Aaron.”

He didn’t respond in surprise anymore when the man appeared and often, as this time, he didn’t even respond with much happiness. “What.” He snapped.

The man frowned. “What is wrong, little dragon?”

It was enough to set him off. “What is wrong? What is wrong??” I’m tired of being a dragon! It’s always the same, I eat, I fly around a little, and I hide from people. I hate it. I’m done. Make me a person again!”

“I can’t do that, Aaron.”

“Why not?!”

“It’s just not how this works. But, you will not be alone forever. There is one who you are meant to be with, but it’s not time for the two of you to meet.”

“What?” He sat upright. “How long have you known this?”

“Since you were about thirteen.”

“But now I’m…” He tried counting in his head, unsure.

“Twenty-five.”

“What?!”

The man nodded.

“Wait, you’ve known for twelve years and you didn’t tell me??”

“I couldn’t. You were too young to understand. There are rules-“

“Rules! Always the stupid rules!”

“Aaron.” He admonished, waiting.

“Fine.” He sulked, head and wings sagging.

“I can take you to see him, but you have to follow the rules. You can never mention to him that you two are meant to be together.”

“Wait… together as in…together?”

The man shrugged and then nodded. “One day, you will see him as you are meant to see him. It can’t be rushed or forced. It is a fixed moment in your timelines and it can not be altered. The other rule, you can see him from time to time, but you can not stay with him.”

“Why not?”

“For one, he is human and is not yet in a place where he is ready to accept you as you are and the second, well, you’ll have to see for yourself. Come with me, Aaron.” He put out his arms.

With a reluctant nod, he hopped up, allowing the man to whisk him away to the window of a small room. A dorm window.

Aaron pressed his snout to the glass, steaming up two lines across it as he peered in. On the other side, sitting all alone was a young boy with long curly hair. “He’s just a kid.”

“He’s twelve, almost thirteen.”

“And he’s at college?”

“He’s very special and he’s meant to do some very important things.”

“What’s his name?” When no answer came, Aaron turned to the man. “What’s his name?”

“His name’s Spencer.”

“Spencer…” He turned to watch the boy. “Why’s he look…sad?”

“He’s all alone here. His family is…different. It’s time to go now, Aaron. It’s not time yet for the two of you to meet.”

“Can I stay please? I can get myself home.” He looked around. “Where are we?”

“California.”

Aaron nodded. “I want to stay.”

“Okay, but remember, he’s not ready yet.”

“Yeah.” Aaron watched the man leave before creeping closer to the window and nosing it open so he could perch on the sill. For hours, he watched little Spencer work on schoolwork. Eventually, Spencer seemed to feel he was being watched and looked up to the window. Caught, Aaron gave a small smile. “Hi Spencer.” His voice was still as small as he was.

Spencer screamed, lurching out of his chair and scrambling, waving at the window, knocking Aaron backward into bushes below as the window slammed shut. It all happened so fast, Aaron’s wings didn’t even have a chance to break his fall.

==

The following night, back in his own cave, Aaron refused to come out when the man called for him.

“Aaron.” The man decided to simply talk to the blue scales he could see. “Do you understand now why you can’t be with him yet?”

“Why does it have to be someone so young?”

“I didn’t decide it, it’s just the way it is.”

“It’s not fair.”

“That may be, but one day, it will make sense. I promise. As a dragon, you’ve grown up much slower than you would have as a human. I promise that a day will come and…and you will be happy.”

Aaron’s only reply was a snuffle and a huff of smoke.


	5. Thirty Five

Aaron focused hard and felt it happen, like he’d done so many times now before. He shrank. Right down to the size that would fit in the palm of someone’s hand. It was small enough that he could spend a day, or two, tailing Spencer without being noticed. Small enough that in the shadows of trees, he was taken for a small bird that no one noticed. It was a neat trick he’d learned once when he’d gotten stuck under a fallen rock, one that he’d used a lot since.

Ever since learning of Spencer, Aaron had paid more attention to the days and months, keeping better track of time passing. Once he was on a schedule of roaming and visiting his future friend, he started paying attention to the things Spencer liked to learn about and did his own learning as well. He snuck into lectures and would peer over shoulders of students in the dim rooms. He’d made sure to be there for each of Spencer’s college graduations and had flown home behind him once to discover just what the man had meant about Spencer’s family. It made the young man’s reaction to seeing him in the window make even more sense.

Then a day had come when Spencer had left the west coast and had head east. Aaron’s been surprised when he’d found him in Virginia, not far from his own cave. It meant he could drop in even more often! Nosing around, he discovered that Spencer was joining the FBI, something Aaron had always been curious about after everything he’d been through with his father. Maybe Spencer was going to put away guys like his father.

When the manuals and books started coming home, Aaron figured out how to nudge a window open and would slip in while the younger man slept and read them. He wanted, needed, to be ready for whatever their life was bringing.

==

Whatever he thought life was going to bring, it wasn’t this! Aaron breathed hard as his wings flapped harder, carrying him through the rural Georgia woods. Used to following Spencer now on cases, he’d gotten good at using his senses to find the young man, but this was different. There’d been no smell of him leaving that godforsaken house!

Swooping left, Aaron swore up and down that he was done with this! Three years of chasing Spencer all over creation was- He stopped short, hovering in place. He’d been searching for days already, quadrant searches like he’d learned in an FBI seminar. Just ahead was the smell of fresh, dead animals and… His nose curled… Burning flesh!

Picking up the pace, Aaron did a loop of the small shack before landing in a tree near an open window. The man the FBI had been looking for walked by, paying him no notice. “You took Spencer.” He could smell it on him. Edging down the branch, it bent under his weight until he could see further into the room. “Spencer!” He cried out, making the bad guy come out looking for the source of the voice. Aaron scrambled up the tree and waited, there was nothing else he could do.

==

Hours.

Aaron’s eyelids drooped shut again before popping back open with a shake of his body, making the branch bounce. He had to stay awake! If he fell asleep and something happened… He could lose Spencer…

Eventually, the bad guy left, got into his truck, and vanished out of sight. Not wasting any time, Aaron swooped to the door and let himself in, taking a good look at the state of Spencer. He’d been beaten badly and Aaron could see marks on his arms that were bruised and swollen. _Drugs_. Well, that just might work in his favor…

Searching the room, Aaron found something to help untie him, freeing him and squawking as he lolled to the side and collapsed to the floor. Heart racing, Aaron did what he could, he grabbed Spencer’s arm and began to drag him out of the shack, moving him far enough away that he was out of sight, but that Aaron could still check on him. And then he returned to the shack and waited.

After dark, the man who’d taken Spencer returned and entered the shack, outraged at finding it empty, but Aaron didn’t stop and enjoy the moment, no, he was too busy using the other skill he’d learned over the years… Breathing fire.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounded and he could only do so much at a time, so he was careful to do the door and windows first to block exits before he lit other points so the whole thing went up quickly. Once he was sure the blaze had the attention of locals, he dragged Spencer back into the clearing to be rescued.

==

It turned out that there could be an upside to drug dependency. The other agents had let Spencer get himself home and then had left him there, alone, sagging and sinking under the weight of the drugs still in his system. In the first hours, Aaron hovered in his smallest size in the dark corners and watched as Spencer twitched and stumbled around the dim space. But then, as the hour grew later, the young man did something Aaron hadn’t expected… He left. Scratching and limping still, Spencer made his way on foot through the streets until he found a man sitting in a doorway. Aaron watched as they talked and then Spencer slipped something shiny into his pocket and walked back home.

Waiting, Aaron wasn’t sure what to do with himself as the man he was watching vanished into his bedroom, kicking the door nearly closed, but when the apartment because too quiet for too long, he went to investigate and what he found, it horrified him. Spencer had bought more drugs and had shot up. “Stupid Spencer.” He landed on the bed and cleared away the needle and vial. “Stupid Spencer.”

Not totally out of it, Spencer’s eyes opened and attempted to focus on the small dragon. “You again.”

Aaron froze in place.

“I’ve seen you before. Is hallucinating dragons a bad sign?”

“What?” Aaron tipped his head to the side.

“It’s probably a bad sign though if I confuse my own hallucination.” His eyes closed. “Shouldn’t you be telling me something meaningful or something? How do these work? The ones in the shed just showed me how my life was.”

Sitting back on just his hind legs and tail, Aaron considered for a moment, if Spencer thought he wasn’t real, then maybe he could help him out. “I’m here to help you through this.”

“Why? No one else wants to help me, what’s the point? I have no friends or anything on the team, no one cares about me.”

“I- I care.”

“What’s you name?”

“Oh, uh, you give me a name.” The other man was quiet so long, Aaron thought maybe he’d fallen asleep.

“Perse.”

Aaron leaned forward again, crouched on all fours. “Percy?”

“Perse, it’s a really dark blue.” He drew a shallow breath.

“Oh.”

“Are you going to come back every time I do this?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I think… I think maybe yes. It would be nice to have someone who gave a damn about me, even if that person was in my own head.”

“Then I’ll always be here.” He watched as Spencer finally drifted off to sleep. Well, if he got to be a hallucination, that would make this all a whole lot easier.

==

“Humans are gross.” Aaron huffed, dragging another load of laundry and shoving it in. He’d finally figured out how to make the thing work and how much soap to use, and not use, so he could at least keep Spencer from living in total filth. But it wasn’t a job meant for a dragon and he could only imagine what the man would have to say about what he was doing, but technically he hadn’t quite broken any rules… Spencer still didn’t know he was real or who he was. So he started the washer again and flew to the kitchen to collect and wash the dishes. At least that job was a little easier.

Spencer groaned from the doorway. “I have to go to work.” His arm was tight across his stomach and he swayed as he spoke.

“No, nope, nuh-huh, not a chance, Buster. You are not leaving this apartment!” Aaron darted to him.

“You know, for a delusion, you’re very pushy.”

“Yeah, well, you need pushy. You look sick.”

“I don’t feel good.”

“Well, shooting up like you have been for…how long has it been?”

“Uh, five months, three weeks, four days, eleven hours, and forty-three minutes.”

“Yeah, that. It’s going to make you not feel good. You _need_ to _stop_.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t? Or you won’t?”

Spencer began to rattle off the statistics of withdrawal.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, damned if you do and damned if you don’t, you could die either way.”

“And if I go to rehab…”

“You could lose your job.” And Aaron had a feeling that it was _important_ that Spencer stayed at the FBI. “What if… What if you signed into a rehab place under a different name?”

“I…” His eyes welled up. “I’m scared.”

“Scared?”

“I don’t want to be alone again.”

Oh. “Oh.”

“What if… What if I just scaled back? Took less?”

“You need to quit.”

“Please?”

Aaron huffed, creating twin hoops of smoke with his nostrils on purpose.

“Please?”

“Fine. You call out and we’ll get you cut back, it’s a start.”

Spencer nodded, digging out his phone and calling his boss.

==

“Humans are gross.” Aaron felt like he was turning into a broken record. This time, however, he was using all he had to try and strip Spencer naked so he could help him get washed up. Nudging him into the warm bath water, he turned. “Don’t…drown… It would really suck if I did all this and you drowned.”

“Yeah.”

Aaron sighed and left the room, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. The younger man had started out the detox okay, but as the tremor and other side effects had kicked in, he’d become surly and combative, the fact that he thought Aaron was imaginary only made the abuse, and items, hurled at him even worse.

“Perse!”

Grumbling, he flew back to the bathroom. “Yes?”

“I’m sick.” He proved this statement by lolling his head over the side of the tub and violently removing anything remaining in his stomach, making Aaron infinitely glad he was in the air, but his position up near the ceiling only gave him a better awareness that the problem hadn’t been single ended.

“You need rehab. You need a doctor. You can not do the halfway and survive.” He stated. “Spencer!”

“I need rehab.” He echoed. “I need a doctor. I can’t do this alone and survive.” He said it just as the little dragon had been making him practice for the past day and a half.

Confident, Aaron flew back to the bedroom and found the phone, carefully tapping out with one claw the number he’d looked up on his last trip out of the apartment. The line connected and Aaron whispered the words again in Spencer’s ear, getting the response he’d hoped for- Spencer telling the rehab that he needed help. He listened carefully and whispered answers for Spencer to repeat and before he knew it, help was arriving.

“Mister Hotchner.” One of the paramedics knelt by the tub. “We’re here to help you.”

Aaron watched from the top of the closet as Spencer laid out limp on the gurney. “I need rehab.” Spencer whispered again. “I need a doctor, I can’t do this alone!” He burst into tears.

Once he was alone in the apartment, he let his own tears flow down his snout, afraid that he was losing his one shot at having a companion someday.


	6. Chapter 6

After the day he forced Spencer to rehab under his human name to protect him, Aaron refused to go back to the apartment. He decided it was worse seeing the younger man without really being able to know him that not seeing him at all. Maybe there were some things worse than being lonely.

Flitting aimlessly around his woods, they were his woods now, Aaron amused himself by chasing a rabbit until it couldn’t run anymore and then leaving it alone. It was mean to give the poor thing a heart attack like that, but he was feeling a bit…mean.

It’d been months since he’d seen Spencer, _his_ Spencer. And he missed him. He missed being called Perse, he missed the snacks and the TV shows and the…friendship. Aaron sank to the ground. He missed having a friend.

==

Footsteps startled Aaron awake in his cave. It was early in the morning, too early for normal people to be out. Edging to the opening, he laid flat to the ground and peered out, careful not to breathe hard and disturb the leaves. Just ahead, a man was carrying a heaving black thing all wrapped up and with a heavy thump, he dropped in on the ground and began digging. When he got a look at what the black then was, Aaron began to tremble, it was a woman, or rather, a woman’s body for the life that had once been inside her was now long gone.

He needed Spencer! Spencer would know what to do! But… Spencer didn’t know he was real… Heart racing, he stayed frozen in place until the man had buried the woman and left. Just like that, like she’d been nothing.

He needed a plan.

==

Spencer frowned at the note taped to his apartment door and glanced around before opening it. The handwriting was a disaster, like a child had done it. It explained that someone had buried a woman in the woods and gave him directions to get there. He wasn’t sure if it was a prank or a trap, but the following day, the entire BAU joined him to search the woods and sure enough, under a very odd marker, they found the body of a local missing woman.

“How the hell did you know about this?” Morgan asked again.

Spencer shrugged. “I wonder if there are more bodies.”

In his cave, Aaron watched as the BAU and a team of forensic experts dug up his woods, finding more bodies he hadn’t known about while he’d been gone. His home had been invaded by a person dumping bodies, the thought made him unsettled. This person needed caught! He waited until the teams had left and then he flew into the trees, lying in wait until the man appeared to dump another body.

Somewhere in the distance, Aaron could hear the team surrounding the area, but they didn’t know yet the man was there! Swooping silently down from the trees, Aaron caught the man’s coat with his claws, startling him and sending him running away in the direction of the team. It only took a short amount of time before he’d driven him right into their trap.

==

Seeing Spencer in the woods, seeing him working again alongside his team, it renewed Aaron’s desire to be with him and protect him, so on the next case the team took out of town, Aaron found himself in Texas, watching as Spencer slowly unraveled. All he could see as the younger man became more and more angry was another slide into drugs, something he wasn’t sure either of them could survive a second time and he was almost relieved when Spencer was ordered back to the station to wait for everything to be over. The station meant safe, Aaron liked safe.

Moving among the trees around the building, Aaron spotted a teen dressed in a black coat marching up the road, an assault rifle in his arms. “Crap.” Aaron swore to himself. “The station is supposed to be safe!” Then, as if by design, if that wasn’t bad enough, Spencer appeared in the street, marching toward the boy!

Aaron was certain this was going to be the day he died from it all.

Below him, Spencer tried talking the boy down, attempted getting him to hand the gun over, but even from his distance, Aaron could tell it wasn’t working. His heart pumped, his wings itching to do _something_ and then the knowledge he _shouldn’t_ was overridden by the urge to save his Spencer as the assault rifle came up, barrel aimed Spencer’s way. With a cry, Aaron swooped down, bowling Spencer over and grabbing him by a leg before using his adrenaline to haul him skyward and out of danger. The teen was too startled and surprised to follow through with his plan and Spencer was too stunned to fight back just yet. Landing carefully on the station roof, Aaron turned and waited, wide eyes taking in the human he’d saved.

“You… You’re…”

Aaron nodded.

“Perse?”

He nodded again.

“But you’re… real.”

“Yep.” The single word made Spencer scream and scramble backward toward the edge of the roof, forcing Aaron to rescue him and drag him back before he fell off.

“No! No no no! I’m losing it!”

“Hey! Pretty Boy!”

Carefully this time, Spencer edged to the end and peeked over.

“Why you up there?”

“Um…”

“Is that… Is that a dragon?” He pulled his sunglasses off and started.

“You see it too?” Spencer whispered barely loud enough for the other man to hear.

“Yeah, little blue thing. Where the hell did you find a dragon?”

“Dragons aren’t real.” He replied instead.

“Ten minutes ago, I would have believed you, Kid.” He looked around. “You coming down?”

“I- I don’t know.” He finally turned and looked at the dragon. “Perse?”

“I can lift you down.” Aaron hovered another minute before returning to Spencer. “Not by your leg this time though, are you okay?”

“Um, yeah. I’m okay.”

Aaron nodded. “Ready?”

Spencer nodded, putting out his hands, eyes growing wide as Perse seemed to grow a bit larger before taking his hands and lowering him safely to the sidewalk before shrinking down again. He stared in shock.

“Wow.” Morgan walked up. “Pretty Boy speechless, didn’t know it was possible.”

Aaron didn’t say anything more, he just focused on shrinking down and flew off into a tree down the street.

==

On the jet home, Morgan took the seat in the back across from where Reid was pensively looking out the window. “Crazy, huh?”

“Hm?” He didn’t look up.

“That dragon. And you knew his name?”

“I’ve seen him before, I thought he was a delusion when I was-” He cut himself off.

“Hey.”

“I thought he was my imagination.” He scratched his arm absently. “He was at my apartment when I was trying to get clean, I think he called for help.”

Morgan thought a minute. “Is he the one who gave that fake name?”

Reid shrugged.

“Hm.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey, Garcia, could you run a name for me?”

“I thought the case was over?”

“It is. I’m just curious.”

“Okay, give me the name and give me a minute.”

“No rush. The name is…” He glanced at Reid.

“Aaron Hotchner.”

Morgan repeated it for her.

“Do we know how to spell it?”

“No. Not for sure.”

“Okay, I’ll run a few different versions and see what comes up.”

“Sure thing.” He disconnected the call.

==

Aaron arrived back at his cave hours after the team would have landed. He’d screwed up, people had seen him, he didn’t know what would happen now. He curled up into a ball and waited for the man to come, but he never did. Aaron didn’t understand. Frowning, he drifted off to sleep.

In his dreams, Aaron imagined a different life, a life where he’d never become a dragon, a life where he’d grown up and gotten married and eventually worked with Spencer as a human. His dream seemed to carry on forever as he slept through the starting rains.

==

For a week, Spencer wondered about the dragon and about why he’d chosen that name for his alias for rehab. Garcia had found three people who’d had that name, all who would be adults now, but one… one had vanished as a young boy. Did the dragon know something about the disappearance? He had planned to ask, but the dragon never came back.

“Hey, Reid.”

He looked up at his friend.

“What’s eating you?”

“I guess… I guess I thought I’d see Perse again.”

“You haven’t seen him?”

He shook his head.

“I- I don’t know what to say.”

“The first time I saw him… I wasn’t high.” He knew he had Morgan’s attention now.

“No?”

“No. I was two months into college, I was about thirteen. He turned up in my dorm window.”

“Okay.”

He looked up at his friend now. “He pulled me out of that shack.”

“You saw him?”

“I don’t know… Maybe?”

“Okay.”

“I feel like he’s important somehow… to me. I need to find him.”

“Then we’ll find him, Reid.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A treat for everyone's patience. Crossing fingers my life settles down after this week. The final inspection should be today on our new house (only 8 months behind schedule, so stay tuned for a story with UNSUBs murdering builders/general contractors in an assortment of gratifying ways).

For months, Morgan had helped Spencer try and find the dragon, with no luck. Eventually, as time passed, other things became more important and the search got put aside. Spencer didn’t see his dragon again, but at night, at night he dreamed of him. In his dreams, he spent hours with Perse, they were so vivid it was almost as if they were real. He could hear his soft voice talking, discussing all sorts of things for hours or sitting and reading him books. It felt nice to have those dreams even if during the day, they made him miss the little dragon even more.

Strolling into the bullpen endless months after the case in Texas, Reid was greeting by Morgan rushing past, grabbing his arm as he went. “What’s going on?”

“There’s a case in Boston, it’s bad.” He hauled him up to the conference room.

Garcia was already talking. “The locals have called us in even though this is the first killing because, well, they’re certain it _isn’t_ the first killing.” She pressed the remote and brought up more photos. “The think the Boston Reaper is back.”

“Why?”

“Apparently the case detective died last night and, on his deathbed, he told and showed another officer about a deal he’d made with the Reaper. The problem is, that deal was only good for the detective’s life, so it stood to reason that if the Reaper was still around, he’d start back up again as soon as word got out. Well-” She brought up new photos. “Within two hours of his death, this happened less than five miles from his home.”

“Pack your bags, boys and girls, we’re headed to Boston immediately.” Their new boss, David Rossi, instructed. “This is going to be a bad one.”

==

Aaron felt something was very wrong. He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like his scales were itching. Crawling out of his cave, he took to the sky and darted between branches of the trees, but even that didn’t help. His heart was racing, his muscles tensed and ready for action. Below him, something caught his eye, a man materialized outside the entrance of his cave. “What’s happening?” He called out from the air, forcing the man to turn and look up. “Something’s wrong!”

The man nodded slowly. “I told you, there are events in your life, in everyone’s lives, that can not be changed. Prior to now, your knowledge of young Spencer has been in its simplest form. After tonight…”

When the man didn’t finish, Aaron landed on the ground in a gust of dust and leaves. “What happens tonight?”

“Spencer and the team are in Boston. They are hunting a monster they don’t know much about.” Before he could add any more, Aaron was in the air again, flying as hard as he could north.

==

Morgan squinted against the dark sky, one hand coming to his head to stop the throbbing. “Shit.” He swore under his breath. Rolling to the side, something caught his eye. A bullet. It had been the Reaper that had shoved him through the window, no doubt, but.. “Reid?” He shouted. His friend had been in another part of the house when he’d been blitzed. “Reid!” Collecting the bullet, Morgan scrambled to his feet and took off into the house, skidding to a stop at the sight of the floor covered in so much blood. “Too much blood.” He squatted, ignoring protocol to touch his finger to a single drop that had escaped the larger pool. “It’s still warm.” He hung his head, worry coursing through him.

An odd sound eventually made him look up just in time to see a winged creature soar through the broken window and land on the back of a chair. In the darkness, the creature looked black as night, like some sort of shimmering demon. “Perse?”

“Morgan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you get here?”

“It’s a really long, weird story-”

“Weirder than me sitting here talking to a dragon?” He cut in.

“Spencer’s in trouble, I need to find him. It’s important.”

Morgan looked back down at the blood. “Yeah, but it might be too late.” A whoosh of air and a soft thud told him Perse had landed beside him, he watched as the dragon stretched over the blood and sniffed. “That’s not Spencer’s.”

“You sure?”

The dragon nodded; his lips curled back revealing his teeth. “If an animal I found to eat smelled like that…I’m not sure it will make sense to a human. It smells bad, bitter. If I ate an animal that smelled like that, I would get really sick.”

“Like…rotten?”

“I guess so.”

“And you’re sure this isn’t Reid’s?”

Perse nodded again. “I’m not saying he’s not hurt, but this isn’t his.”

Morgan got an idea and stood, walking past the kitchen and finding a hamper, fishing gloves out of his pocket before bringing a shirt back. “Can you tell if it’s the same as this?”

Perse walked on all fours over and then shook his head. “The blood smell is too strong here. Can I take it outside a minute?”

“Yeah, sure.” Morgan handed the shirt over and watched the dragon fly back out the window. _I’m talking to a dragon as if it’s the most normal thing in the world._ Perse’s return shook him out of his thoughts.

“It’s the same.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“I don’t suppose you can track which way they went.”

Even on his dragon face, it was clear Perse was frowning. “I’m not a dog.”


	8. Chapter 8

Aaron flew frantically around Boston. He didn’t care about what he’d told Morgan, he’d learn how to track just to put an end to this nightmare!

Spencer had been missing for over a day, a strange deviation from The Reaper’s MO. Aaron’s scales had begun to feel uncomfortable again, like they were itchy and electrified. It just added to the anxiety he was feeling.

“I am going to find you and take you back to my cave and never let you out after this.” He grumbled as he searched for any sign of where Reid might have gone. Finishing another loop, he swooped down and landed on the roof of the SUV he knew Morgan was waiting in.

“That’s seriously creepy.” A voice came out of a window below him.

Tipping over, Aaron peered into the vehicle window upside down. “Still nothing. When we find him, I’m locking him away somewhere so he can’t get kidnapped again.”

“I’ll help.” The man with Morgan, Rossi, replied. “We might have a lead though, perhaps some unofficial eyes in the sky could help us out?”

With a nod, Aaron listened to the address and then took off.

Morgan turned to Rossi. “It’s seriously weird that we’re talking to a dragon, right?”

Dave shrugged. “It’s a weird job.”

==

It was creeping past midnight when Aaron, circling the area where the SUV’s had raced to, got his first look at Reid. “Is he dead?” He swooped in.

“No. He’s pretty messed up though, no sign of The Reaper.”

Heart clenching, Aaron wanted to reach out and just touch him, but something worrying rippled along his scales. “Something’s wrong.” He looked around. “I think he’s here somewhere.” Creeping along, Aaron followed the feeling, heading for where it was stronger, a sense of dread filling him. Turning the corner into a bathroom, Aaron spotted a pair of shoes behind an old claw-foot tub. Landing softly on the tiles for a split second, Aaron pushed off hard, throwing himself at the shower curtain, colliding with the body on the other side with a hard grunt. With a snarl, he sank his claws in, using his wings to drag the man to the floor.

Once on the ground, Aaron squeezed his claws tighter before looking down, he was startled when the man just grinned at him. Looking under his feet, he realized the man was wearing a Kevlar vest.

The man lunged forward with a roar and Aaron did his best to fight him off. Claws flying as his did his best to fly after him.

“You must pay for what you did!” Aaron grabbed the man by the arm, pulling him off his feet as they tumbled down a flight of stairs. “You won’t get away with this!” Swiping with one foot, he slashed across the man’s face.

“Okay! Okay! I give up!”

Feeling the electricity build within him, Aaron focused on making himself bigger, hunching forward as his body grew. He stared into the man’s eyes, even now, the man wasn’t afraid. “No, you’re trying to trick me.” He placed one foot on the man’s chest, pressing a now-giant claw between two ribs. “You hurt Spencer. You hurt a lot of people. You don’t get to win. People like you never get to win.” He pressed his claw in, watching closely as blood began to pool around his foot and the man began to go limp.

“Perse!” Morgan’s voice shouted from elsewhere in the building.

Instantly turning away, Aaron shrank down to a more manageable size and flew through the halls.

“Perse!” Morgan shouted again.

“What?” He skidded to a stop in the room, met with the distraught faces of Spencer’s coworkers.

“He’s stopped breathing, we can’t get a pulse!”

“No!” Aaron scrambled across the floor. “No!” He wrapped himself around Spencer, focusing hard on his powers. “Take me instead!” He begged, tears rolling down his snout. “Don’t let him be dead!”

The electric feeling turned into arcs of electricity curling off his scales and the rest of the team hurried out of reach. “What’s going on?” One of them asked. The light and heat got too bright for any of them to see. All they could hear was the dragon crying out inside the room like he was totally heartbroken. The sound broke all their hearts as well.

Suddenly, the sound stopped, and the heat went away. The team blinked their eyes and eventually the bright dots cleared, and they could see again. Inside the room was Spencer, just as he’d been before, but now instead of the dark dragon, there were two men in the room with him.

Morgan made to lunge in and intervene, but Rossi’s hand on his arm stopped him. “Just wait a moment.”

“I don’t understand.” The man on the floor with Spencer spoke.

“You once made a plea in order to save yourself, it altered the course of your history. I told you, there were events in your timeline that couldn’t change, no matter what, you had to fight and kill The Reaper with your bare hands.”

“I… I don’t…”

“You were willing to sacrifice yourself completely in order to save Spencer’s life. You were willing to vanish into nothing to bring him back. That kind of sacrifice, it has a power even greater than I have. That self-sacrifice for your soulmate, it can perform miracles.” The man gave him a fond smile. “You get to remain human.”

“And- And Spencer?”

“Ah, yes.” The man knelt down, brushing the side of Reid’s face. “He’ll wake up soon enough, with a killer headache, mind you, dying and coming back is rough on the brain.”

“He’ll live?”

“He’ll live.”

==

Spencer’s eyes cracked open and he got a good look at the room. “Great, another hospital.” He croaked. After a moment, he cracked his eyes again, taking in who was there and finding a face he didn’t know. “Who’s he?”

“Ah.” Morgan glanced at the man and back at his friend. “That’s Perse.”

“What?!” He forced his eyes to remain open this time.

“Turns out your dragon was a person, it’s a long story, Kid.”

The man stepped closer to the bed now. “Actually, my name’s Aaron Hotchner.”

Spencer’s mind whirled. “That’s the name you…”

“Yes.” Aaron nodded.

“How did…?”

“I had to save you. I was willing to die if it meant my sacrifice could be used to save you.”

“I dreamed of you. This you.” He pushed up in the bed. “Not just the dragon you. I knew this you was my soulmate.”

Aaron nodded.

“I never thought you’d show up and… You’ve been here this whole time.”

At a loss for words, Aaron threw himself onto the bed, wrapping the younger man in a hug. “I don’t want to ever be apart again.”

 


End file.
